The Sinner’s Only Alternative

The Sinner's Only Alternative

(No. 2894)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JULY 28, 1904.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON A LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
DURING THE WINTER OF 1861-2.

"Now therefore come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians: if
they keep us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but
die." 2 Kings 7:4.

OUTSIDE the gates of Samaria, at the time mentioned in our text, you
might have seen four miserable beings, gaunt and thin, with that
sharpness of eye and visage which is always the effect of protracted
hunger. They were lepers, suffering from a loathsome disease and
emaciated by starvation. They held, as it were, a miniature council of
war, and the result of their deliberations was that they said to one
another, "Why do we stay here to die? If we go into the city, even
should we be permitted to remain there, famine is so rife that we would
soon die. And if we continue to sit here, it is quite certain that we
must pine away and perish. Let us go to the camp of the Syrians–here
is a little hope in that direction, though it may be a very slender
one. The Syrians may put us to death and so end our miseries. Perhaps
death by the sword is preferable to death by famine–at any rate, we
can but die in any case. Let us choose the desperate alternative– let
us take that course which, although it requires the greatest boldness,
holds out some slight hope of success."

You know the result of their decision. They went to the Syrian camp,
found that the host had fled, feasted themselves to the fullest and,
possibly, began to appropriate some of the plunder that abounded all
around them. Then, suddenly, the thought struck them, "Here we have
bread and corn in abundance, yet the people in Samaria are starving.
This is a time of common distress so, though they did throw us out of
the city, it would be a deed unworthy even of lepers if we left our
fellow creatures without news of our discovery. Let us go back and tell
the good news to the people in the city, that their suffering may be
relieved as our own has been." They did so and soon the famished crowds
poured out of Samaria and fed to the fullest!

You are familiar with the narrative, so I will base upon it an argument
which may prove useful to any enquiring ones who may be here. There are
probably with us some who have before them an alternative somewhat
similar to the one mentioned in our text. If so, I hope they will
imitate these poor lepers in their actions and, afterwards, count it
their joyful privilege to deliver to others a message as cheering as
the one which these lepers carried to the famine-stricken people of
Samaria!

I. First, then, THERE ARE SOME OF YOU WHO HAVE AN ALTERNATIVE PRESENTED
TO YOUR CONSCIENCES.

There was a time when you were careless about eternal things, but that
time has passed. You can look back, possibly only a few weeks, to the
time when the Sabbath was to you a day of revelry, when the House of
God was entirely neglected by you, when the Bible was a Book which you
would not have read unless you had been flogged to read it and when
prayer was a duty and privilege that you utterly despised. But now your
conscience has been somewhat awakened and though not thoroughly as yet,
still partially you have begun to perceive that what is written in
Scripture is true, that we have gone astray like lost sheep, that our
iniquities have prevailed against us and that our very righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. You have heard the Gospel preached. It matters not
where–whether in the cathedral, or in the theater, or anywhere else.
But now that you have listened to the Word, Satan has interposed and
has said to you, "Christ will not receive such sinners as youare! The
Grace of God was never intended for men who have degraded themselves as
you have.

There may be hope for other men, but there is none for you–the gate of
Mercy is fast closed against you and it has been said of you, "'He that
is filthy, let him be filthy still; he has disobeyed his God, let him
receive the penalty for that disobedience.'"

Now you perceive that there are just two courses open to you. You can
sit still, but then you know that you must perish. Or you can go to
Christ, but your fear is that you will still perish. Yet you can but
die if you go to Him and He rejects you–but if you do not go to Him,
you will surely perish. Even should you believe in Him, you fear that
you may be lost–but if you do not believe in Him, there is no hope at
all for you. Should you go to Him in prayer? Your fears tell you that
He may repel you and say to you, "Get out! What right have you, who
once cursed Me, to expect any favor from Me? You, who have scorned My
Grace a hundred times and defied My Law, what do you mean by falling
upon your knees and entreating My mercy? Go away, ungrateful wretch,
and perish in your sins!" Yet still this Truth of God is present to
your mind–that if you do perish there, you do but perish, and it is
quite certain that you will perish if you remain where you are! Let me
try and work out this question for you, sitting down by your side, as
one of the leprous men may have sat down by his fellow. You know, my
Friend and Brother, that should you die as you now are, it is
absolutely certain that you will perish. Do not listen to Satan's
lie–"You shall not surely perish." You all know that the Bible is the
Book of God. I can hardly believe any man who tells me that he doubts
whether the Bible is the Word of God. The Truth of Scripture is being
so perpetually confirmed by all the discoveries of those who travel in
the land where it was written that I can scarcely credit the doubts
concerning its authenticity as being honest.

But even if you reject the Word of God, you must believe that God is
just. If there is a God, He must punish men for sinning against Him.
How can any moral government exist if sin goes unpunished, if virtue
and vice lead to the same end? Conscience, fallen though it is, and no
longer like God's candle in the soul, still has sufficient Light of God
left to assure men that God must punish sin! Supposing that you do
accept the Word of God as true–you know that the unregenerate can
never see the face of God with acceptance, that those who have not been
cleansed from sin can never stand before the thrice-holy Jehovah, for
there can by no means enter Heaven, anything that defiles! As to your
ultimate fate, if you continue as you now are, there can be no question
the fire of Hell must be your everlasting portion! Now turn to the
other alternative–there is for you at least some hope there. Even your
poor trembling heart admits that there is at least some hope that if
you seek mercy, you shall find it. I can assure you that there is not
only hope, but that there is certainty that you will obtain it! Jesus
casts out none that come to Him and He freely receives the vilest of
the vile!

But I put the matter now as your unbelief puts it–it is not an
absolute certainly to you that Christ will reject you, is it? You are
not quite sure that if you pray to Him, He will reject your petition,
or that if the tears of penitence shall steal down your cheek, God will
refuse to pardon you. I am only stating the question as you yourself
state it. If I were speaking according to my own convictions, I would,
on the authority of God's Word, affirm again and again that if you come
to Him through Jesus Christ, His Son, God will certainly receive you!
But even putting it in your way, is it not the wisest course for you to
say–

"If I perish, I will pray, And perish only there"?

Let us look at the matter in another light. It is certain that if you
perish as you now are, you will perish without pity and without mercy.
The Law of God, by which you are already condemned, knows nothing about
forgiveness–and the Law provides no sacrifice for sin. If you perish
without seeking mercy at the hands of Christ, there can be no mercy for
you–rigorous, unabated, undiluted Justice must be your portion! But
now, do you not feel that even if you could perish after coming to God
through Christ, yet you would not perish without having some ray of
pity thrown upon you? Would there not be at least this consolation for
you–"I did what God commanded me to do. I did come to Him and seek
forgiveness. I did plead the precious blood of Christ, yet He rejected
me"? Do you not think that this would be balm to your spirit? But if
you perish as you now are, you will have this thought ringing in your
ears forever–"You heard of Christ but you believed not on Him. You
lived where the Light of the Gospel was clearly shining, yet you shut
your eyes to it. Christ was preached close to you, yet you refused to
trust Him. You would have none of His warnings–you put your fingers in
your ears and ran on to destruction." But should you perish after
having sought mercy through Christ, you would be able to say, "I did
seek it. I did knock, I did pray, I did trust, I did yield my heart to
God, yet I perished." If such perishing were possible–though we know
that it is not–it would be far preferable to perishing without having

sought the Savior in His own appointed way! For your own sake, then, I
urge you to choose this alternative and I ask you to let me take you by
the hand and lead you to Him who, with arms outstretched, waits to
welcome you that He may give pardon to the guilty, life to the dead and
salvation to the lost!

Yet further, you ought to remember that all those who have continued in
a state of nature have, without exception, perished. Not one, however
high in station, however excellent in morality, however profound in
learning, however lofty in fame has ever been able to pass the
threshold of Heaven except through the blood and merit of the Lord
Jesus Christ! In the black list of the unregenerate, there is no
exception to their condemnation. But take the other side and at least
we can assure you, from our own case, that even supposing that some
perish though they trust in Christ–which is not true– yet there are
some who do not! Certainly there are some who, in this life, receive
the pardon of their sins and know that they have received it and who,
in death, are cheered with the prospect of a glorious immortality! Saul
of Tarsus was led to repent of sin, though he said that he was the
chief of sinners. Others in his day who had no more right to mercy than
you have, sought and found it! And there are hundreds, yes, I might say
thousands in this Tabernacle right now who could rise, if this were the
proper season to do so, and each one say, "This poor man cried and the
Lord heard him and delivered him out of all his troubles." Well, then,
if God has, to your knowledge, saved some who have come to Him–I say
that He saves all who come to Him through Christ! But I am dealing with
the question from your standpoint–then it would be wise and right for
you, also, to say–

"I'll to the gracious King approach,

Whose scepterpardon gives.

Perhaps He may command my touch,

And then the suppliant lives.

Perhaps He will admit my plea,

Perhaps will hear my prayer,

But if Iperish, I willpray

And perish only there.

I can but perish if I go!

I am resolved to try,

Forifstay away,

I know I must forever die." But you can go on to say, in the words of
the same gracious writer–

"But if I die with mercy sought,

When I the King have tried,

This were to die (delightful thought)!

As sinner never died."

No, not one ever died thus! You would be the first who thus
perished–so take this alternative and, as the Holy Spirit has
quickened you to make you feel your need of a Savior, I pray that the
same Holy Spirit may lead you, this very hour, to plunge into the
stream–sink or swim–that whether you perish or are saved, you may
say, "Your wounds, O Jesus, shall be my hiding place! Your blood shall
cleanse me from all sin! Your righteousness shall be my clothing! You,
and You alone, shall be my All-in-All."

II. Now I pass on to observe that THE DISCUSSIONS OF THESE LEPERS ENDED
IN ACTION.

I wish this could be said of all of you. How many holy resolutions have
been strangled in this House of Prayer? How many good thoughts have
been murdered in those pews? See if you cannot find their blood upon
your own clothes. Many a time the tear which betokened the first rising
emotion has been wiped away–and the emotion has gone with it. May it
not be so now, but may God grant that, like the lepers, we may put into
action what we think over and what, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, we
resolve to do!

And, first, let me remind you that the action of these lepers was bold.
Cowardice would have sat still and said, "It is true that we shall
perish if we remain here, but we will not go just yet to the Syrian
camp. We are very hungry, but we may be able to go without food for
another hour or so." And thus only the extreme pinch of starvation
would have driven them out. The fear of a sword-thrust might have kept
them still, but it did not. They said, "We will risk it. We know that
it is a desperate experiment, but, for better or for worse, for life or
for death, we will go to the camp of the Syrians." So they said and so
they did! And you will be wise if you act in the same fashion. It may
seem a very bold thing for you,

my unknown but trembling Hearer, to think of going to Christ by faith.
"Why," you say, "I have not the presumption to do so after what I have
been!" Perhaps some of you could tell of immoral conduct. Others could
speak of the Gospel despised and of privileges neglected which make
your guilt even more heinous and you say, "No, we do not have the face
to go to Christ. We are too black, too guilty, too diseased. We cannot
cover our sores, we cannot hide the leprosy which gleams in deadly
whiteness from our brow. We cannot go, we dare not go!" But do you not
recollect those lines of Hart's that we so often sing–

"Venture on Him, venture wholly, Let no other trust intrude! None but
Jesus

Can do helpless sinners good"?

Oh, yes, do venture on Him! Though it seems impossible that God would
receive you, He can do what would be impossible to all others. O you
blackest of the black and vilest of the vile, trust Him to pardon you,
for He can do it! It surpasses your faith, does it? But it is God who
has promised to pardon, so judge Him not by yourself! Measure not His
ability by your rules! Fathom not the depths of His Grace with your
short-lined plummet! Honor Him by believing that even such a sinner as
you are may find Grace and pardon–and find them now!

I recollect that John Bunyan, in his "Grace Abounding to the Chief of
Sinners," says that there were times when he felt that his sins were so
great and his horror at them was so terrible that he must go to Christ
at all costs. He said, "Though I sometimes used to think of Christ as
of One who stood with a pike in His hand to push me back, yet my dire
necessities came upon me with such force that I would have run upon the
very pike sooner than continue to endure my sin." Sinner, venture to
run upon the pike and you will find that there is no sword or pike in
Christ's hands! And when you think that you are about to run upon the
sword, He will clasp you in His arms, press you to His bosom and say to
you, "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions and, as
a cloud, your sins: return unto Me, for I have redeemed you."

O Sinner, if you think that my Master is a hard Master. If you think it
would be too bold an action on your part to come to Him, you do not
really know Him! I once thought Him to be such an One as myself. For
five long years I thus slandered Him till my heart was driven almost to
despair and I was ready to choose strangling rather than life! I said
it could not be that Christ could ever forgive such a sinner as I was.
I wrote bitter things against Him, as well as against myself, till at
last, when I could stand it no longer, I came into His Presence with
the rope around my neck, prepared to hear my sentence–but I ventured
to give one look at Him and oh, what a change that look brought to me!
My soul, at this hour, renews its transports at the remembrance of the
change that came over my spirit the moment I learned to believe in
Jesus! The burden of my sin was gone in an instant! My five years of
agony were soon forgotten in the joy of being able to say, "I'm
forgiven! I'm forgiven!" Then I could have shouted for joy because the
love of God was shed abroad in my heart. Oh, that I could be the means
of bringing even one of you to trust my Master as I then trusted Him! I
am sure, if you would do so, that you would find Him so good and
gracious that you would say, "The half has never been told." I have
never been able to tell the thousandth part of His love! I have tried
to tell of His mercy, but how little of it have I been able to set
forth! I have made but a poor daub where there ought to have been a
fine picture of a Prince with every virtue shining in His face and love
streaming from His eyes of compassion!

Poor troubled Soul, come and trust Him, even though it may seem to you
to be a bold thing to do. Like the woman who stole a cure, so do you
come behind Him and touch the hem of His garment. As the dog under the
table, without leave or license, eats the crumbs that fall, do you the
same. Though you think it is against law and against reason, still dare
to believe in Jesus! He will be better to you than all your
fears–better even than your faith–and you shall find that you did not
trust Him without a reason!

But while these lepers did a bold thing, I note that they did it
unanimously. It is not said that three of them went to the Syrian camp,
but that the fourth said, "No, I will not go now." It is not recorded
that two of them said, "When we have a more convenient season, we will
go." It was a mercy for them that they were all hungry, for, if they
had not been, they would not have gone where food was so abundant. It
was also a mercy for them that they were all lepers–or else they might
not have dared to go. What a mercy it is for you, Sinner, if you know
that you are a sinner! What a blessing it is that you have not yet
reached that state of mortification which is the prelude of eternal
death! You feel as if you were shut out as these lepers were. I thank
God for it, because now that you seem to be shut out of Israel, it may
be that you

will begin to go to Israel's God and find mercy, help and hope in Him!
You will not all go to Him tonight, but oh that you would! There will
come under our notice–our faith is in God that it shall be so–perhaps
a dozen, or a score, each of whom will say, "I will venture to trust
Christ." "But what are they among so many?" While we bless God that we
have so many seals to our ministry, what a sorrowful reflection it is
that so many thousands come into this place and go away unsaved!

There are many of you who can say, "The harvest is past, the summer is
ended and we are not saved." Is it because the Gospel is not preached
here? No, that cannot be the reason, for we know that the Truth of God
is fully and faithfully preached here, yet we sow much and reap little
compared with what our hearts desire! Is there anyone here who resolves
to sit down and die? If you do so resolve, do it deliberately, but I
pray the Lord to cause you to make the right decision. You will not
decide aright unless He chooses for you–but if you will make the wrong
choice, do it deliberately and do it solemnly. I wish you would say it
if you really mean it, for then I hope you would soon reverse it–"I
intend to choose the pleasures of this world and, from this time
forward, to live without God and without Christ." If you talk like
that, you may as well add, "and I mean to die and be damned," for that
must follow if you continue in your present course. In that pew where
you are, let your damnation warrant be signed and sealed. "No," you
say, "not so!" But, Sirs, you had better make that league with death
and that covenant with Hell rather than remain as some of you
are–indifferent and careless! This is the great fault of our
church-goers and chapel-goers. When we once get worldlings in to hear a
sermon, they listen with attention and if they are impressed by what
they hear, it often happens that the impression is a saving one. But
with you who are used to hearing sermons, it is often merely going from
one place to another to listen to this preacher or that–as though the
preaching of the Gospel was only intended to amuse you.

How often you come to hear us, just as you go to see a popular actor,
that you may spend an evening and be able, when you are asked, "Have
you heard So- and-So?" to say, "Oh, yes! I heard him on such-and-such a
night." Sirs, do you think we preach merely for this? If you think so,
it proves that you do not know us! Is it such a fine thing to make a
display of ourselves before you? Is it such a grand thing to have all
your eyes fixed upon us? God knows that I would sooner break stones on
the road than be a minister if it were not for the hope of winning
souls! I know of no life that has more trouble in it. I know of no
occupation that brings more awful despondency of spirit upon a man's
mind than my ministry brings upon me. So, if God does not enable me to
win souls by it, I pray Him to deliver me from it! I would renounce my
charge for all it ever brings me in, or all the honor it ever gives me
if it were not that sinners were saved, backsliders reclaimed and God
glorified! I do pray you, Sirs, to shake off your indifference. Be
honest even with the devil. If you mean to serve him, be prepared to
take his pay. If you enjoy the pleasures of sin, be honest enough to
let Satan have a reversionary interest in your soul–and look forward
to making your bed in Hell–be prepared to lie down in everlasting
torments! Or else, I evoke you, by the love of God before whom I
stand–embrace that other alternative and fly to Him who will in no
wise caste you out!

Bear with me while I again remind you that the action of the lepers was
also instantaneous. They said, "We will go to the camp of the Syrians,"
and at once they went. Too many are like that son who said, "I go,
Sir," and went not. All of us who are now Believers can recollect
times, before our conversion, when we were impressed under solemn
sermons, yet the impression soon passed off. Some of you can also
remember how you made haste home from the service and hurried upstairs
for quiet meditation and prayer. But the idle conversation of the
afternoon dissipated the impression that had been made. Many there are
who have felt serious searching of heart under a sermon and who have
said, "Please, God, spare us another day and we will think over these
things." But what do they say concerning them now? There is a
gray-headed man over yonder–let him go back in thought to his early
days. When he was a little boy, his mother had bright hopes concerning
him. And when he was a lad, everybody looked upon him as a young
Timothy. But now he is more like Demas and his silvery hair is a
reminder of the silver and gold which he obtained by forsaking God and
loving this present evil world! And, all the while, the root of the
matter was not in him. Gray-headed man, recall that early vow of yours
which was registered in Heaven, but which you have broken!

There are men here, in the high tide of business, who, when they were
much younger, resolved and re-resolved that they would serve the
Lord–yet they are still as far from doing so as they ever were. If you
wrote down your resolves in your pocketbook, I wish you would read them
over again and read them with repentance as you say, "These vows were
made in the power of the flesh and, therefore, they were broken–but
the sin of breaking them remains upon my soul.

The lepers went instantly to the Syrian camp and so were saved from
starvation. And we should go to Christ, not by long-protracted
resolving, but by instantaneous submission as justification by faith is
an instantaneous gift! The faith that saves is, doubtless, an
instantaneous act! Believe in Christ, trust Christ and do it now, for,
as soon as you have done that, you are saved.

We will leave this part of the subject when I have just remarked that
these lepers were all well rewarded for what they did. Not one of them
perished of famine–they were all saved. Not one came back
empty-handed, but all were greatly enriched. And not one of you,
seeking mercy through Christ, shall be refused, but all who are led by
the Spirit to trust Christ shall be blessed, saved and adopted into the
family of God!

III. I have no time for the last point except just briefly to refer to
the fact that THE LEPERS NO SOONER FOUND WHAT WAS GOOD FOR THEMSELVES
THAN THEY WENT TO TELL IT TO OTHERS. And if you have found Christ,
after you have rejoiced in Him and fed upon Him and enriched yourself
with Him as your choicest Treasure, then go and tell others all you can
about Him.

"Oh, but I cannot preach!" says one. Try, Brother! "But I cannot
preach," you say again, "for I have tried to do so, but failed." Then
write a letter, Brother, or speak a word for Jesus–

"Tell it unto sinners, tell, That you are saved from death and Hell." I
cannot make out how some people keep this secret! I cannot keep any
secrets and I am sure that I could not keep this one. No sooner does
this secret get into the soul of a man than it tries to burn its way
out! You recollect that when John Bunyan was converted, he said that he
wanted to tell the very crows on the plowed land all about it! And I
think it will be the same with you when you find the Lord. If you have
learned this great secret, you will want to tell it to your fellow
workmen. Perhaps you are employed behind the counter, so when the shop
is shut in the evening, you will be telling this secret to those who
are with you in the common room. If you are a husband, you will never
be content until you have told it to your wife. Or if you are a mother,
I am sure you will want to be a preacher to your children. It is a
great and holy fire which will burn and not smolder!

There was a spark once got into the stubble and the Angel of Discretion
said to it, "Lie still, Spark, lie still! If you begin to burn, the
next stalk will catch fire and then the next, and the next until the
whole field will be ablaze–and then the homestead and then the village
itself will be burned down." But preach as he might, the fire would
burn and the Angel of Discretion well-near had his wings burned before
he turned to flee. There are, in some of our churches, certain friends
who are very angels of prudence. They say, "Young men, do not try to
speak for Christ too soon. Do not attempt to do it before you are fully
qualified for the task." My dear Sirs, if God has told any man this
secret, he cannot help telling it to sinners! If the Lord has touched a
man's lips with the live coal from the heavenly altar, his lips will
burn as well as the coal! If the New Life has been given to him, it
must find a way out so as to convey the blessing to others!

What a mass of men there is constantly attending this place! I suppose
that two-thirds of my usual congregation consists of men. What a noble
band of men we would have if all were converted to Christ and then went
forth as messengers for Christ to the Church and to the world! Sirs, do
you really know Christ and yet you have not witnessed for Him to
others? Take care that before the Great Tribunal of God you are not
held responsible, through your neglect, for the ruin of your fellow
men! You young men of ability, educated in our grammar schools and
trained in our colleges–it is a lamentable fact that all too often, if
you join the church, you feel as if you had only to give it your name
and not your whole self! If a man joins a rifle corps, he attends drill
and throws himself into the whole affair with heart and soul,
endeavoring to promote the interests of the corps in every way that he
can! But if he joins a church, it is as much as you can do to get him
to drill once a year–and he seems to have nothing to do but to stand
at ease.

"O Sirs, when you join the Church, I hope you will give up your whole
selves to it! If not, I pray you to withhold your names. Up, up, in the
name of God and tell t starving London what the lepers told starving
Samaria–that there is bread to be had! Do you say, "I am myself a
sinner"? Your once leprous lips will not spoil the message if you have
been to Christ and have trusted in Him as your Savior. Do you say, "I
am unworthy"? Ah, but He who took away your unwor-thiness, took away
the disability which that unworthiness gives! You are not worthy to be
called God's son by nature, but by Grace you may be worthy to be His
ambassador!

My poor Friend over there, you often weep because you cannot do more
for Christ. Be of good courage and do all that you can for Him. If you
cannot speak to thousands, be content to speak to one. And if you
cannot bring hundreds to the Savior, be glad if, now and then, you can
bring one mourning soul to Him to be comforted. My dear Hearers and
especially you who are the members of this Church, if you have obtained
mercy, I beseech you by the compassionate heart of your dying Redeemer,
by that hope you have that He will shortly come again, be instant in
season and out of season, preach and teach the Truth of God, knowing
that your labor shall not be in vain in the Lord. Oh, that in the day
of Christ's appearing, it may be seen that many sheaves have been
brought into the heavenly garner through your being stirred up to labor
by the ministry in this House of Prayer!

To you, unpardoned Soul, I have spoken at length, and God knows how
truly from my heart. Let me speak just this word once more before you
go home. I am told that just under the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral
there is the mark of a workman's hammer, where it is said that a man
who was at work on the roof, fell down and there met with his death. I
do not know where it is, but there may be the spot, in this House of
Prayer, where a soul will be lost forever. This may be the moment when
the wax upon that soul's death-warrant shall grow cold because its
owner deliberately says, "I will have none of these things," and when
God shall say, "You shall have none of them. I will leave you alone.
Your conscience shall never be troubled again, but you shall go through
life in peace, you shall go to your death without any care and only in
Hell shall you open your eyes to your true condition." God grant that
it may not be so with any of you! Yet I feel as if it would be so with
you unless Sovereign and Irresistible Grace shall prevent it and in
that case, there will be a spot in this House of Prayer where a soul
will be born to God! What man will give his heart to Christ? Are there
none of you who will do so? Must I go back to my Master with no joyful
tidings? Is there no one here who will say–

"I'll go to Jesus, though my sin Has like a mountain rose. I know His
courts, I'll enter in Whatever may oppose"?

Are there none who will do so? Great God, are all hearts hard? O Spirit
of God, come now, in this solemn moment, and break the hearts of stone
with the mighty hammer of the Word of God! Cut and wound with Your
two-edged sword and then heal with Your wondrous ointment even now! I
say no more, but leave it with Him. May it be so, for Jesus' sake!
Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM84.

May the Spirit of God bless to us every syllable of this familiar Psalm
as we read it!

Verses 1, 2. How amiable are Your tabernacles, O LORD ofHosts! My
soullongs, yes, even faints for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my
flesh cries out for the living God. Perhaps the Psalmist would never
have said, "How amiable are Your tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts!" if he
had not been detained from them so long that he could truly say, "My
soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord." It is very
sad, yet it is all too true, that we often need to be deprived of a
mercy in order to be made to value it aright. Would it not be wiser on
our part if we prized our privileges while they were yet spared to us?
Still it is a good thing to have our love to the assemblies of God's
House increased by temporary absence from them. See how fervent was the
Psalmist's desire. His longing turned even to fainting at the very
thought that, perhaps, he would never go there again–"My soul longs,
yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord." And his very "flesh" also
joined in the intense longing of his soul. You cannot often get your
flesh to do anything that is good, or to desire anything that is right,
yet, sometimes, even our very body seems to be so swayed by the Holy
Spirit that it is compelled to go in the right way!

3. Yes, the sparrow has found a house, and the swallow a nest for
herself, where she may lay her young, even Your altars, O LORD ofHosts,
my King, and my God. The Psalmist envies even the birds that twitter
around the sanctuary and wishes that he, too, had wings that he might
fly to God's altar with them–and there take up his permanent abode.

4. Blessed are they that dwell in Your house. The Psalmist meant those
priests who lived in the Temple and, in a spiritual sense, his words
apply to those who dwell in God wherever they are and who can truly
sing–

"Wherever we dwell, we dwell in Thee,

On the land or on the sea."

"Blessed are they that dwell in Your house"

4. They will still be praising You. Selah. Constant communion leads to
constant adoration.

5. Blessed is the man whose strength is in You. Who throws his whole
soul into the worship–not such as come up to the House of God and
leave their hearts at home! "Blessed is the man whose strength is in
You."

5, 6. In whose heart are the ways of them. (Or, better, "are Your
ways"). Who passing through the valley of Baca (or, "Weeping") make it
a well Finding solace in their suffering, sanctification and in their
affliction.

6, 7. The rain also fills the pools. They go from strength to strength,
everyone of them in Zion appears before God. Blessed are the pilgrims
who are journeying to the upper Zion, the Jerusalem which is above, the
mother of all the saints! The margin renders it, "They go from company
to company." Or it may mean, "They go from strength of faith to greater
strength." And so they pass on–

"Till each appears in Heaven at length."

8. O LORD God of Hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob.
Selah. "You are a prayer-hearing God. Did You not hear Jacob at the
brook Jabbok? Then, O God of Jacob, also give ear to me! If I have not
yet come to be like prevailing Israel, I am like wrestling Jacob, so,
give ear to me as You did to Jacob."

9. Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of Your anointed.
We hold up Christ before His Father and say to Him–

"Him, and then the sinner see– Look through Jesus' wounds on me."

10. For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. He means, of
course, better than a thousand spent anywhere

else!

10. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell
in the tents of wickedness. ' 'I had rather dust the mats in Your house
than sit on Satan's throne. I had rather wash the feet of Your saints,
or perform any menial duties for them, than rule over all the hosts in
the realms of darkness."

11, 12. For the LORD Godis a sun andshield: the LORD willgive Grace
andglory: no good thing willHe withhold from them that walk uprightly.
O LORD of Hosts, blessed is the man that trusts in You. He will never
walk uprightly unless he trusts in the Lord, neither will he receive
the fullness of the blessing except as he learns to trust to the
fullest, for the Master still says, "According to your faith, be it
unto you."